[8] Magic Schools

The school of Abjuration (from the word “abjure” meaning “to renounce or reject”) concerns magic that creates barriers, blocks and protects against harm.

Abjuration magic can ward a person or place against the presence of evil (or good), turn aside the blade of a sword, or guard the mind against outside influence.

Sometimes, a good offense is the best defense and, while Abjuration magic is nowhere near as destructive as spells from within the school of Evocation, it is not merely a form of protection, but a means of inflicting harm upon an attacker. 

Wizards who study magic within the school of Abjuration are called abjurers and excel at banishing evil spirits, protecting against extraplanar incursions, and defeating practitioners of the other schools. 

Divination magic is more than seeing the future – although that is an important part of it.

Those who practice this subtle and often-misunderstood art seek to part the veils of space and time, in order to master the skills of scrying (viewing things remotely), discernment (finding the truth of things), knowledge beyond human limitations, and foresight.

Wizards who master Divination magic seem to have command over fate itself, twisting and molding causality to serve their own ends. 

Mind control, arcane compulsions, and false courage – the school of Enchantment focuses on affecting the minds and perceptions of others. Enchantments compel and charm people, bending them to the caster’s will.

Wizards, Warlocks, Sorcerers, and Bards who master Enchantment can be peacekeepers, capable of soothing raw emotions and blind rage. Or they can be tyrants, malevolent tyrants who warp and twist the minds of others against their consent.

This school of magic is, in many ways, akin to magical hypnotism, controlling a target’s thoughts, actions, and behavior. 

Plumes of fire, walls of ice, and rivers of caustic acid. The school of Evocation focuses on channeling and conjuring elemental effects, hurling fireballs and calling down lighting.

Evokers are some of the most destructive magic users, capable of laying waste to entire armies of enemies or razing cities to the ground. A master of Evocation magic is nigh on a force of nature but also knows how to control their magical effects so as not to harm their allies in the process of cutting down their enemies.

Not only can Evocation magic destroy, but it can also heal grievous wounds and call upon the power of gods to heal or harm, or have more delicate, subtle effects; in many ways, Clerics are just Evokers of a different stripe.

The school of evocation is also by far the most expansive, with a spell list more than twice as long as other schools. 

Magic from the school of illusion dazzles the senses, tricks the eyes, the ears, and the nose. In many ways, Illusion magic has a lot in common with Enchantment but focuses instead on deceiving the senses rather than warping the mind.

Arcane pyrotechnics, shimmering silent images, and cunning disguises all have a home within the school of illusory spells. Some illusionists are impish tricksters who delight and dismay; others are cunning assassins or sinister masters of trickery and deceit. 

Perhaps the oldest and most controversial school of magic, Necromancy allows magic users to assert control over the very nature of life and death.

Necromancers are a rare breed of pariahs, mad scientists, and reanimators who use their powers to raise armies of shambling zombies, spread malignant diseases, and drag souls back from beyond the veil.

They can obviously raise the dead, but can also toy with the life force of others in more subtle ways, and are particularly adept at all magic that concerns domination, imprisonment, or destruction of the soul. 

There are many different ways to reach beyond the veil of death.

Borrowing its name both from ancient alchemical practices – like the famed transmutation of lead into pure gold – and physics – wherein transmutation means the changing of one element into another by radioactive decay, nuclear bombardment, or something else equally scientific and/or likely to give you unwanted side effects. 

Transmutation magic, therefore, deals with turning one thing (or person) into another. It’s easily the school of magic that most closely resembles science in our own world, although this burning curiosity can give way to a sense of burgeoning godhood in the more powerful wielders of Transmutation magic.

One who has mastered Transmutation commands the raw energy of creation, crafting both physical forms and mental qualities as you see fit – a smith who forges reality itself rather than base metals.

Transmutation’s ties to the natural world also makes this school the preferred type of magic practiced by Druids and those with ties to the natural world – although it’s unlikely you’d ever find a druid who knows (or cares) that their Druidcraft is a Transmutation Cantrip.